Results tagged “Canada in Space”

Our Prime Minister again endorses RadarSat Constellation, then reminds us that he increased Canadian Space Agency (CSA) funding in March 2010 so funding delays are now "a thing of the past," just so long as nobody needs any cash until next year, which may or may not be good news for Com Dev International which warned investors on August 26th of continued cost-growth problems with US and Canadian government satellite contracts. Meanwhile, a posse of politicians make an "important" announcement regarding "a future space mission for a Canadian astronaut" that most of the rest of us likely already know about. All that and more, this week in space for Canada.

The Winnipeg Free Press reminds us that the Canadian aerospace industry has always straddled a dense political minefield while European based independent advocate Catherine Laplace-Builhe promotes the Canadian Space Agency (or at least she did until US based Facebook shut her down) and the Canadian contractor for the upcoming ExoMars mission reminds me personally that they consider their Canadian contribution to be "significant" and something I should mention here. All that and more, this week in space for Canada.

With the Wall Street Journal reporting that shrinking budgets and national rivalries are slowly undermining European space programs and the Asia Times noting that the cash strapped National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is still able to find US$30 million in new funding for Google Lunar X-Prize (GLXP) contestants and the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility (ISSF) opening it's Canadian Arctic doors to collect data for the German TanDEM-X satellite mission, it's getting difficult to differentiate space players without a scorecard, at least as of this week in space for Canada.

Canadian Space Agency President Steve MacLean tells the Winnipeg Free Press that his cash poor agency is developing a space policy which lines up behind the Obama administration, the Washington Post tells it's readers that the cash poor U.S. space policy is already lined up on "a collision course with itself" due to a lack of funding and cash flush private satellite operator SES publicly lusts over Canadian competitor Telesat. All that and more, this week in space for Canada.

It's the summer silly season and signs of life in Ottawa and at the John H. Chapman Space Centre in the sleepy Montreal south shore suburb of Longueuil are noticeably absent. So thank goodness for the joint European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA ExoMars mission, expected to hunt for signs of life on the red planet during 2016-2018, which yesterday announced a series of mission instruments for their ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Canadian contributions are included, at least as of this week in space for Canada.

Thank goodness we're not the American's because US space competitiveness has eroded in each of the past three years according to the Futron Space Competitiveness Index, which considers Russia the big winner in space because of its recently doubled space budget and focus on monetizing national space investments but which also concedes that Europe, Japan, China and India are also expanding their activities. So how do Canadian's compare? All that and more, this week in space for Canada.

India launches a Norwegian micro-satellite built by a Canadian university without any help from the American space program, which insists that it's "not dead yet" as the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee "unanimously" approves legislation adding an extra shuttle mission and development funds for their proposed heavy-lift rocket while the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) just might possibly have said something if it wasn't for those "pesky" politicians. All that and more, this week in space for Canada.

Julie Payette ponders her possible future as an ex-astronaut while pundits and commentators speculate on whether current astronaut Chris Hadfield will return to space anytime soon and everyone else seems to want the Russians to launch more rockets. All that and more on this second day after Canada Day, this week in space for Canada.

Engineering job fairs proliferate all along the Florida "space" coast as the US shuttle program winds down, while in Canada alternative space propulsion gains momentum and I personally have to "apologize profusely" as the Canadian Space Agency becomes a paying customer to launch the upcoming "CASade, Smallsat and IOnospheric Polar Explorer" (CASSIOPE) satellite on a Falcon-9 rocket. All that and more, this week in space for Canada.

The worldwide commercial space market heats up as Iridium Satellite Communications caps a two billion dollar turnaround with a $492 million USD launch contract to Elon Musk and his Space-X cowboys. Meanwhile, back in Canada our federal government finally ponies up another $26.4 million CDN to MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) to continue work on phase "C" of the RADARSAT Constellation mission and COMDEV International CEO John Keating tells shareholders that his company continues to learn "painful lessons" about the design and profit challenges with public sector projects. All that and more, this week in space for Canada.

Elon Musk has his fully functioning Falcon 9 rocket. South Korea has their Space Launch Vehicle-1 (NARO-1) on the pad at the Naro Space Center, the Indians are busy perfecting their cryogenic liquid fueled rocket and even the English are beginning to wonder why the Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise is scheduled to take off and land "only in America, you say" as Canadian space focused activities temporarily wind down for the long summer doldrums, at least for this week in space for Canada.

Raising money for mining ventures is something that Canadians do very, very well indeed and since the huge media event this week is about the big BP oil spill off the gulf coast, this week in space for Canada will focus on leveraging our acknowledged financial expertise to move some money out of terrestrial resource gathering and into our cash starved space activities.

This week in space for Canada is all about getting re-acquainted with old friends both in-person at the Canadian Astronautics and Space Institute (CASI) 15th Annual Astro 2010 conference held in Toronto from May 4th - 6th and on the written page via the relaunch of an old friend, The Canadian Space Gazette.

"And there you have it, the Great Canadian Handshake," then astronaut Steve MacLean said over a scratchy radio from space back in 2006 after using the Canadarm2 on the International Space Station (ISS) to grasp 16 tonnes of machinery handed to him by a second Canadarm on the space shuttle Atlantis.

There's no news this week in space for Canada, at least until we absorb and assess the comments and whispered gossip coming out of last weeks Canadian Space Agency Workshop on Suborbital Platforms and Nanosatellites, but there's lots of stuff going on elsewhere and this week we're going to inventory some of those stories.

This week in space for Canada is all about the contrast between the generally positive business and industry reaction to the changes underway within the American space program, the silence these very same changes seem to be eliciting from within the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and about what the CSA might need to do to stay on top of the situation.

This week in space for Canada is focused on a rather interesting article by Peter Rakobowchuk of the Canadian Press that initially showed up Sunday in partial form under the title "Space Agency eyes Cape Breton for satellite launch" on the CTV news website. Since then, the story and the internet buzz have both continued to grow.

This week in space for Canada is all about developing an inventory of the commercial space focused activities occurring last week and comparing them to what's happening, or maybe not happening, at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Last week in space for Canada was all about our federal government, it's changing policies and newly allocated funding as outlined in both the Wednesday throne speech and the Thursday budget. This week for space in Canada is about whether these changes will help or hinder Canadian space focused activities.

This week in space for Canada is all about an American, Michael Swartwout, an Assistant Professor of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering at Parks College, St. Louis University who recently wrote a fascinating article on "The promise of innovation from university space systems: Are we meeting it?" for the October 12th, 2009 issue of the Space Review where he talks about university faculties launching space satellites. At least one of those faculties is Canadian.